The rest of the increase is down to Brits living longer, and more people choosing to live on their own.

Migration Watch chair Lord Green said: “These household projections underline the enormous pressure on housing caused by the fastest population growth for nearly a century, two-thirds of it down to immigration.”

He added that under the DCLG’s “high migration scenario” of 233,000 a year, one new home would have to be built every five minutes just to house new arrivals.

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He said: “Demand for new housing has constantly been underestimated and unmet.

“It is now crystal clear that, if the housing crisis is to be eased, the new government must get immigration sharply down.”

DCLG predicted a huge population surge in cities and towns across England, with a projected 29 per cent rise in central London by 2039.

The population of Watford is set to rise 30 per cent, with a 35 per cent rise in Corby, Northants and a 15 per cent jump in Boston, Lincs – a rural town where one in ten people are from ‘new’ eastern EU countries.